The Great Eden Eclipse

I must admit we got swept up in The Great American Eclipse excitement.  And it was awesome, amazing, pretty dang cool, I must say.  Even for us, with only 93% coverage.  I had been listening to any and all the science podcasts that were talking about the eclipse.  I liked the funny eclipse gifs going around on social media.  I read the articles with stats and facts and awesome info.  And thanks to my mom, who provided us with (official ISO approved) eclipse glasses well before Monday, August 21st, we technically didn't have to go to the library for their eclipse party and free glasses hand-out day.  But it was Monday, and Monday is Library Day at our house.  We needed to pick up some books and return some others, so we went.  And so did the rest of the county, it seemed.  Okay, maybe not that many people were there, but there were definitely way more than our normal Monday story time visits. 

(My friend Erin, who usually comes with her little boy (and Sam's best bud) Charlie, was home at her parents' house in Idaho Falls, in the path of totality.  She kept texting me leading up to Monday, and even that morning, saying that all the hype about crowds and traffic was not panning out where she was.  I joked that they all came to the library instead!)

Side note: this was seen at Valley Market, our
local grocery store.  It made me smile.  Just
another reason I love living in Eden.

The start of story time - usually we have two rows
of chairs that are mostly empty (not pictured: lots
of little kids on the front rug).

Eclipse oreos!

Craft time = crazy time.

I spy a little Callie working on an eclipse
craft.

We came prepared with not only our own glasses,
but our own pinhole projectors.  Do you see the
tiny eclipse shadows spelling CAL?

And SAM?

Eclipse shadows everywhere.  They were my absolute favorite
part!

We snuck some glue and scissors outside to avoid the crowds
and enjoy the shadows.  It was starting to get visibly darker by
now.

It was getting noticeably cooler, too.
So cool! 

More crowds in front of the library.
(And more shadows, too.)

Sammy shadows on the wall.

Gregg was home, and he took this one.

We had a fun/nerdy family text thread going,
sharing pictures and excitement and awe.
This is Heather's eclipse shadows in her sink.

P.S. The crowd thing turned out to be real.  I saw this
huge line on someone's instastory - it's a crowd of people
waiting to get on the gondola after watching the eclipse
at the top of Snowbasin.  My friend Erin ended up staying
in Idaho Falls, but her husband had to get home for work;
he didn't get home till midnight even though he left at 6:30 pm.
(The drive usually takes a couple of hours!)  So, yeah. The traffic
lived up to the hype, too, I guess.

But!  Traffic, crowds, whatever aside . . . it was totally worth it to view a total eclipse.  It was fun to see and talk about and share.  And it was fun to know that the whole country was doing the same thing at the same time.  I loved it.  Can't wait for the next one - Utah will be in the path of totality in 2045!